Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse by Kim Wickens

Author:Kim Wickens [Wickens, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation, Animal Sports, Horse Racing, History, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Biography & Autobiography, Sports
ISBN: 9780593496701
Google: yPSaEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B0BL6Q5YQL
Goodreads: 63249764
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2023-07-11T07:00:00+00:00

Historical marker at Midway, Kentucky, telling of Sue Mundy and William Quantrill’s burning of Midway and robbery of Woodburn Farm on the night of February 2, 1865.

As the guerrillas headed north, the Union army was nowhere to be seen.

By the predawn hours, General Hobson was holding a batch of puzzling dispatches from his officers stationed throughout Kentucky. Some claimed they had seen Sue Mundy and Quantrill. Others said they were chasing an entirely unrelated guerrilla band who had also burned down a train depot, elsewhere in the state. Then Hobson received a dispatch from a colonel of the Fifty-fourth Kentucky Cavalry reporting that he had chased Sue Mundy’s gang northward, but that they had to halt their pursuit. “Our horses are worn out; can’t do anything without fresh horses. Please send some, if only fifty. Quantrill is with the gang.” For whatever reason, Hobson didn’t send orders for help.

The Union army failed to catch Marcellus Clarke or Quantrill that February night. General Hobson had bungled the pursuit, failing to investigate the most promising leads received from his commanders in the field. The only group who even came close to seizing the guerrillas was Governor Bramlette’s Home Guards. But the Home Guards, who were trying to aid the Union army, had fired erratically, mortally wounding Alexander’s beloved Bay Chief without capturing any of the Raiders.

Abdallah was found where the Raiders had abandoned him, twenty miles from Woodburn. Too broken to be moved, the stallion died there of exhaustion and hard use. Other Woodburn horses were found abandoned with Abdallah and were returned to Alexander. But Edwin Forrest, another of Alexander’s trotters, believed to have been stolen by Frank James, was never found.

Alexander and Lexington survived the raid. Because of the Union army’s inability to handle the guerrillas, Alexander worried endlessly about the safety of his champion stallion. Writing to his cousin, he described the horrors of the February 2 raid. He told him that his worst fear was the potential loss of Lexington. “Matters have at length become so unsatisfactory, and life and property so unsafe in my part of Kentucky that I have at last come to the determination of leaving my place, taking with me such stock as is likely to be stolen.”

In the dark of a February night not long after the raid, Woodburn stable grooms walked Lexington and fifty Thoroughbreds along the back side of the farm to the Spring Station rail depot. There, in the quiet of that hour, they carefully loaded each horse onto the train, securing them in stalls configured for cattle. On the platform, Lexington stood, neck stretched high, twisting his ears toward the steam hissing out the engine’s exhaust valve. The rattle of the planks under his hooves registered what his eyes could no longer see: a large monster, deeply exhaling and rumbling with a belly full of fire. As grooms attempted to lead Lexington aboard the train, he reared and sidestepped, turning his haunches swiftly to clear anyone who tried to get near him; then he coiled up, poised to buck and kick out to defend his ground.

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